Demi Moore covers the February issue of Harper’s Bazaar with a covershoot that is obviously photoshopped to the max. No news there, but the accompanying interview is slightly more interesting, since Demi is promoting her new producing gig with “The Conversation,” a show that will premiere on Lifetime. The interview is really more of a conversation between Demi and her producing partner, Amanda de Cadenet, who reveal that their show will “featur[e] strikingly frank discussions with A-listers,” i.e. prominent women that will discuss “the universal themes in women’s lives” such relationships, body image, sex, career. It’s a great concept, but the guests are guaranteed to be sanctimonious as hell.

Sure enough, Demi and Amanda have revealed that Gwyneth Paltrow — in all her infinite wisdom — has been interviewed for the show. Of course, there are other “strong” women like Alicia Keys, Lady Gaga, and Jane Fonda who will appear as well, but Demi and Amanda have singled out Goop as being able to spout the best “listen to your inner guide” sort of mantra. Spare me. With Goop, the inner guide pretty much says, “Marry a super rich guy, exercise two hours per day, and cleanse the colon regularly.” Oh, and “Discuss one’s exquisite friendships with the Dalai Lama and Beyonce at every given opportunity.” Inner guide, my ass.

Anyway, Demi herself comes across pretty well (despite the title of this post) during this particular conversation, which was conducted “post-Thanksgiving” and, therefore, in the wake of Demi filing for divorce from her douche husband. Mercifully, Ashton is mentioned nowhere during this discussion. Instead, this interview is something of a graceful dance between two girlfriends, which is kind of where I like to think of Demi these days; that is, not doing a sexy dance for men or pretending to be Gloria Steinem. Instead, she’s merely hanging with a girlfriend, and they’re supporting each other. Here are a few excerpts:

On Body Image: “I have had a love-hate relationship with my body. When I’m at the greatest odds with my body, it’s usually because I feel my body’s betraying me, whether that’s been in the past, struggling with my weight and feeling that I couldn’t eat what I wanted to eat, or that I couldn’t get my body to do what I wanted it to do. I think I sit today in a place of greater acceptance of my body, and that includes not just my weight but all of the things that come with your changing body as you age to now experiencing my body as extremely thin – thin in a way that I never imagined somebody would be saying to me, ‘You’re too thin, and you don’t look good.’”

On Abandonment & The Unknown: “I used to think that what scared me was the idea of being abandoned until someone said to me, ‘Only children can be abandoned. Adults can’t be abandoned because we have a choice. Children don’t have a choice.’ So I started to rethink. ‘Okay, it’s not that. What’s the underlying thread that really scares me?’ I think what scares me is not having the courage to reach my full potential . . . which means that I would allow fear, insecurity, and doubt to rule me and that I would ask for only a little of what is actually there for me. It would mean that I would be settling.

“And so for me, it’s not just about reaching my potential in terms of my career. It goes more to the idea of being whole, of loving oneself. And I think there is no way to reach your fullest potential if you don’t really find the love of yourself. If I were to answer it just kind of bold-faced, I would say what scares me is that I’m going to ultimately find out at the end of my life that I’m really not lovable, that I’m not worthy of being loved. That there’s something fundamentally wrong with me.

“And that I wasn’t wanted here in the first place, so the fight against gravity for me is to find that love for myself that gives me the courage to reach my fullest potential, to actually receive this abundance that’s really there. I also think that what scares you goes back to being a kid; what really scares you is not knowing. What scares me the most is not knowing and accepting that just about everything is not in my control. That makes me feel unsafe.”

On Comfort: “I think being comfortable is perhaps overrated. I think a better word than comfortable is accepting. Accepting weaknesses and strengths and being more able to celebrate all of it as a whole package. Well, it indicates an illusion as opposed to the reality, which is that we don’t live in black and white – we live in the gray – and that, as you’re saying, stepping out of the familiar, the known, the comfortable, allows us to become more whole and complete. So to answer the question ‘Have I become more comfortable with myself as a woman?’ I would say that I have in the sense of valuing myself, certainly more than I did when I was a teenager.”

On Her Idea Of Freedom: “Letting go of the outcome. Truly being in the moment. Not reflecting on the past. Not projecting into the future. That’s freedom. Not caring more about what other people think than what you think. That’s freedom. To not be defined by your wounds. Somebody wrote something to me that said, ‘Don’t let your wounds make you become someone you’re not.’ That’s really powerful.”

I’m relieved that Demi seems to acknowledge that she’s grown far too thin during the past year or so because she really looks incredibly frail these days. Her other statements ring very true as well, and I understand that baring her soul during the course of this conversation was both (1) Very planned; (2) In the interest of promoting her Lifetime show. Yet Demi still comes off remarkably lucid, particularly in light of her recent painful split.

Oddly enough, Demi also confesses to her guilty pleasure, which is watching “Jersey Shore.” I do hope she’s not scoping out DJ Pauly D as her next sexual conquest. Don’t go there, Demi! Sadly though, all of the guys on that show combined are less revolting than her soon-to-be ex-husband. And that’s saying something.

I totally agree! She needs to look at that cover and realize WHY she looks so good – they added some meat to her bones and filled her face out a little bit. And she looks a million times better with wavy, flowing hair instead of the stick-straight, flat-ironed look which looks way too harsh on her at her current weight.

Aww, poor Demi I do really feel for her because only a sad woman would have stayed with Ashton for as long as she did.

I want to see her surround herself with girlfriends, go out with her daughters, do a couple of good work projects and enjoy some donuts – seriously! How nice would it be to see her put weight back on and gleefully enjoying a donut? Then I want to see her start a relationship with a respectable, older businessman (non Hollywood). The End.

The cover is pathetic. “Oh, wounded, hurt little me!” So frail, then there’s the fringed shawl over cut-out swimsuit shot. Wowza. Seems like Demi is playing both sides to get sympathy. Not for nothing: I have never seen a pic of Amanda de Cadenet, but only heard of her as the punchline of jokes on “Absolutely Fabulous.”

I wish she had not done the poor me. I wish she had owned it and just said. The marriage ended. It was not what I thought and I’m glad I had the strength of self to know that as a woman I deserved more.

(even if it was a lie)

I hate the pity me. “I’m not worthy of love”. Why because you husband was not the man you needed or wanted him to be. Why is that on her.. and not him

ugh.. sorry just wanted her first real interview to show strength of self.

I kind of respect that she was honest about her insecurity. Its really taboo to actually be insecure these days yet, its written across the faces of all the reality tv stars these day. Demi somehow, isnt behaving like any of them. She admitted to her flaws, and answered the question of why she stayed with him indirectly. I think a lot of women reading the interview will feel as she does and hopefully take it back that they can feel small and insecure sometimes but the idea is to be bigger than you body in spirit. we all WANT her to be like “yea F that dude im so much better than that” but didnt she do that by filing for divorce?

Most women are insecure about something .. I am sick of hearing celebs saying they LOVE their bodies, they think they are intelligent, beautiful and talented.

It’s too much, rarely does anyone feel that full of themselves and it’s the truth.

Just because she is insecure doesn’t mean she is deeply troubled .. it’s refreshing to hear that she does have troubles, body issues, relationship issues.

And it’s still soon.. after a divorce or break up you go through so many emotions, changes on how you feel about yourself, the relationship, him..so I am sure she will have different feelings and viewpoints months or a year from now.

God give the woman a break.. but I hope she finds someone a bit older than her, more mature and will treat her right this time.

When looking at these photos one word comes to mind Photoshop Demi has not look like this in a long time I’ve seen resent photos of her and she still really thin, but I do give them credit that they didn’t completely photoshop her In to looking like she in her 20′s. Like they did with The Glamour cove with Alicia keys and Jennifer Aniston we’re they photoshop it so much to make Aniston and Demi look younger they made Alicia unrecognizable; Bazzar made Demi look like a 48 year old woman who takes care of herself and nothing’s wrong with that.

i love that she is smiling and lookng happy in the pics, i do hope that she finds some peace and is able to put her life back together, i have always like her and i hope she is able to get back to a healthy place.

And I’ve hated Amanda De Cadanet since she was nick named Amanda De Drinks Cabinet by the UK tabloids eons ago, hanging on to fame by star f*cking her way through Hollywood. And she’s aging beautifully.
B*tch!

I only know of Amanda because of her marriage to John Taylor of Duran Duran. I think she must have a drug/party history because that’s what he was heavily into at that time. He has only got clean due to the influence of his current wife (Gela of Juicy Couture). Vaguely recall she was UK tabloid fixture for years. The project sounds vaguely interesting. I hope Demi does OK.

Exactly! I won’t be watching this “The Conversation,” crap ‘cos I am sick to death of ALL these whiny, rich, over-privileged, Botox-y women forever moaning about their “flaws and insecurities” as though the rest of the world is supposed to care.
Show me some women with some real problems please.

Mouthful. What’s the line, ‘…it says nothing to me about my life’? The ‘Gimme Moore’ train rolls on. The very notion of this show positively turns my stomach, and if it isn’t just an ‘Inside The Vulva’s Studio’ dressed up in ‘sistren’ and ‘wellness’ rags with a little whoreson’s vitality thrown in to pander to the ‘mature woman’ set, I’ll eat my toque. A pretty big claim given where I live (Canada).

All of her seemingly hard won self-awareness just seems like psychobabble when you compare it to who the woman was married to and how much energy she’s put into modifying her body. Wish her the best but the hypocrisy is too obvious to ignore.

I know psycho babble when I hear it and Demi is laying it on thick. It only means she has been to many therapy sessions! I suspect gwynnie will sound similar. Bottom line: I do not take advice from people who are leading inauthentic lives.

Oh god, Demi Moore is SO that friend at that party who gets depressed-drunk and ends the night at 3 am crying her heart out in your lap about why men don’t like her, why is she a failure despite having great success, why does her haircut make her look butch, why is her face so round and fat…despite being a far-too-slim knockout. I’m getting too many familiar flashbacks right now!

Photoshopped to pieces or not, she’s still a gorgeous woman and she shouldn’t give up!

I feel for her and what she is going through. It certainly can’t be easy, particularly when the main aim of her marriage to the douche was to prove to her detractors she could do it. Marry a toyboy and live happily ever after. Young or old – it wouldn’t have mattered, the man was a douche and always will be.

Okay, the thing about worrying that at the end of her life she’ll discover she’s not worthy of being loved? Made me want to give her a big hug! Celebrity or not, that sounds very genuine and real to me. That’s an awful thing to fear!

And what’s wrong with looking your age? If more people accepted looking their age, they’d be happier, less critical and generally more fun to be around than those who try so painfully hard to pretend they’re still 25.

She said she looked her age because she was thin, so her face was gaunt and more lined in person, but that her thinness photographs well. I actually never get the remarks about Demi having too much plastic surgery. I think she looks like a more mature version of her younger self but very beautiful. No blown up lips or blown up cheeks, etc. With a little weight on her she looks 40, not 49.

I know Amanda from that movie “Fall” written and directed by Eric Schaeffer…which has an AWESOME soundtrack…some pretty good writing regarding relationships and an intense scene where Amanda uses Eric as if he were the girl…and she’s the man…

Let that one take you where it will…

I like that Demi is saying what a lot of people are thinking regarding finding and keeping initimate love…

Thank you! I thought I’d seen Amanda before but I couldn’t place her. I saw her in Fall years ago. The soundtrack is great. The boy/girl scene is sexy. But, my favorite part is where Eric makes Amanda have the big O just by talking to her.

This all seems like a game to me, first all the stories after the brake up which as we know came from Demi camp that she over Ashton and on to a younger man when that did play out the way they wanted her people are going for the poor me route to draw up sympathy and publicity, now that sad.

Why is she on the cover anyway and what is she promoting? Or is this a publicity thing to get her attention.

I didn’t understand half of what she said… it sounded like those God-awful affirmations Marianne Moore and her ilk tried to get folks to say while collecting their money for “soul searching.” I guess, Kabbalah is as much a racket as Scientology if her command of the English language and affirmations are any evidence.

I caught that too. It’s not just Kaballah. She’s probably spouting stuff from the dozens of self-help books and books on relationships that she has bought. It was like she was just repeating statements from books.

That interview made me cry. All of us (certainly me), on some level, can related to what she is saying. I think the statements were life-affirming and truly made me feel not alone. She looks gorgeous in these pictures. I hope she does look this way in person.

She needs to just realize she married a douche she will start to feel better. Then she will stop this fucking pity party go out with her friends have a good time and be a role model for her girls by showing them how to handle things like this.

I saw her about 9 months ago on the street and she look emaciated then…
Its hard for me to feel sympathy for her-after all this is a woman who was known as “Gimme Moore”…
She can feel satisfied that that she helped a douchy talentless frat boy become mega rich and famous i guess…

Am I the only one who remembers when Amanda De Cadenet was BFFs with the Widow Cobain and they showed up at some Oscars-related thing in matching slip dresses and tiaras completely fucked up? Because that was spectacular.

You’re not. I’m that old too, actually I remember her dancing on tabletops in a black rubber dress when she was 15 with her then friend Emma Ridley.
She was labled a “Wild Child”. She’s held on to her scrap of fame through her associations with whoever she’s latching on too. Courtney was one, Brody Dalle another but her Pièce de résistance was Keanu. Plus she’s married a Durani and a Stroke. Ugh!

I like the fact that she’s honest about her insecurities. I really don’t think she was whining or looking for pity. Unfortunately, there’s alot of people out there from all walks of life that struggle with feeling insecure at times-looks, money, success, etc. don’t always add up to feeling strong and secure. I like the honesty.

A real woman worries that at the end of her life she hasn’t done enough, loved others enough, instead of her crap. Obviously, she isn’t talking about being loved by her children or fans. She only thinks of her appeal to a man and that makes her shallow and doomed to repeat her last mistake. Seriously, I see her going after Justin B trying to hold on to idea she is ageless. She doesn’t deserve to play Gloria S.

“Don’t let your wounds make you become someone you’re not”. Well said. I do not find her bitter, miserable or “wounded”, to me she sounds honest, mature and reasonable. Unlike her ex-husband, whose “movies” (!) make me cringe. I wish her all the best.

My hope for her is to realize not just all women but people in general is not to examine your self worth by a man or a person based on a relationship. Relationships fail and end. You live with yourself forever. True happiness comes with contentment and being able to accept your flaws as well as your best attributes which is not only based on physical appearance. Hope all goes well for her in the future. We can all find happiness if we look in the right places.

Oh look, she is playing the victim and angling for sympathy. Desperate play for press attention and kind write ups. Why now is she doing this? Because she can’t book a job, she is a has been and the man child hubby was the only thing that kept her in the press and bordering on relevant for the past couple of years. These comments are nothing like the comments she has decreed on people on her twitter account about her great life, her self worth, etc. Splits can be hard but using it for PR mileage is a bad as the famewhoring of the marriage which probably contribiuted to it failing. Please go away.

OMG. She needs to stfu and admit she married a kid yong enough to be her son, and that he actualy became attracted to someone his age. She needs to grow up, get off the poor me shit and go make a damn movie, She is popping pills to lose weight to add to the pity party. She is not the only woman to get a divorce or who had a rat for a husband. My own sister actaully got a divorce to be with her oldest sons best friend and after she put him thru collage and he talked her into turning the loan to the house she owned, he told her that the age difference was too much. She had no money left from the 1.3 million she got in the divorce and no home. She got a job and made a new life for herself and Demi has no money problems only her ego is bruised and this pity part makes her look like an idiot.

She sounds like she will work through it. It is natural to have sadness, part of the process. I love, love those outfits & photo’s. Now THAT is how to have fun with an outfit. Can’t be serious and go to the grocery store…just have a blast knowing that you rock the outfit on a balcony.